The country with which we are concerned—Nubia, Sennār, and Kordofān—is a comparatively recent conquest of Islam, and it does not properly emerge into the light of history before the sixteenth century. Of its state during the Middle Ages we are very imperfectly informed. Nubia had adopted Coptic Christianity in the sixth century, and there were two kingdoms, Maqarra in the north, with its capital at Dongola, and Aiwa in the south, with its capital at Soba near the modern Khartoum. The Arabs twice overran northern Nubia within a decade or two of the Muslim conquest of Egypt, and in their second expedition they sacked Dongola and destroyed its church; but there was no attempt at annexation, and for some five or six centuries the relations between Muslims and Nubians were based on a treaty concluded in 651–2, which precluded either party from settling in the territory of the other; it also imposed on the Nubians an annual payment of 300 or 360 slaves in exchange for gifts of cloth and grain. The treaty was but indifferently observed, and from time to time there were raids and counter-raids, but Nubia preserved its independence and its isolation from the worlds both of Islam and Christendom. Intercourse with the Muslim lands was not entirely lacking, and in the tenth century two Arabic authors composed accounts of the state of Nubia: I refer to the famous al-Mas'ūdī and to a certain Ibn Salīm or Ibn Sulaym of Aswān, extracts from whose work are preserved in Maqrīzī's Topography of Egypt.

La sagesse des Saints est grande; les gens d'études en s'y appliquant approchent de sa nature. Mais le destin assigné à chacun diffère, le perfectionnement de la vertu n'est pas égal en tous. Les Saints des premièrs âges s'accordent avec ceux des temps ultérieurs, comme les deux parties d'un sceau. On ne doit donc pas s'écarter d'eux; car, si on le fainsait tant soit peu, on s'en irait errant à mille lis de la vérité.

In the study of Chinese ceramics, the XVIIth century is a period of particular interest, when many changes took place which affected porcelain production in Jingdezhen, the porcelain centre in China. These were fluctuations in economic activity, social upheaval, political turmoil and foreign penetration in trade. However, very few records, dated material or archaeological finds of this period exist which can provide us with a better understanding. This problem is particularly acute from the late Wanli period (1573–1620) to the reinstatement of imperial supervision in Jingdezhen around 1683, the so-called Transitional Period. For this reason, there is still controversy about dating the porcelain of this period, one which has been overlooked, except for a couple of sentences in books on Chinese ceramic history. This attitude, popular in China, arises partly from the traditional neglect of folk wares, and also from the lack of material evidence available for study. Fortunately, Chinese porcelain of this period has been highly regarded by westerners from the day it reached their countries, and this long-lasting enthusiasm has resulted in several studies which have increased our knowledge of it.

This paper explores the interaction between a religious leader, the Aga Khan, and a cluster of castes, the Khojas, in Colonial India. While scholars have usually investigated the Bombay judicial sources, claiming that the Aga Khan Case of 1866 put an end to dissent among the Khojas who rejected his authority, the Karachi judicial sources provide a new perspective on the issues. It will be argued that the so called dissenters were fighting for the autonomy of the Khojas as a caste that they were able to keep in turning to Isna ‘Ashari. Therefore, this paper deals with how the British colonials attempted to control the people of India through the courts, but also how Indian actors used the courts for reaching their goals. Furthermore, the religious discourse through which the claims were expressed was but a shell concealing economic pursuits as well as issues of social rank.

Three aspects of the historical memory of 1971 remain highly contentious. The first concerns the (il)legitimacy of the military operation and the description of Bengali resistance against it as ‘national liberation’. The second centres on the accusation of the Pakistani military's genocidal violence, the use of rape as a weapon, and the counter-allegation of a Bihari genocide. The third focuses on the way forward: whether this should be by forgetting the past or seeking an apology for war crimes.

This article will focus on all three aspects of the debate about the violent events of the 1971 war. Instead of writing a history of 1971 as such, I will propose a methodological framework for writing a history of the war: that of asking the right kind of questions. I invoke this method not for a correct answer, or even a different kind of history, but mainly for its interruptive power to sabotage the dominant discourse, force a moment of introspection, and open up a reflective space for the possibility of reparative justice through an intimate historical narrativisation.

The list of eight seasons named in the Gezer Calendar is consecutive and complete, and there is no reason for supposing that the word in that inscription has any other than its normal meaning of “lunation, month”, or that the annual cycle at Gezer in the second half of the tenth century before the common era differed from the twelve-month year found in other parts of the North-West Semitic world as well as in Mesopotamia. It follows that some of the periods named in the Gezer list must extend over more than one month, i.e.—since there is no indication in the text of any fraction of a month—over two months at least. H. L. Ginsberg was the first to see that the solution is to be sought in the differing forms and , each of which occurs four times. Ginsberg proposed to treat the latter form as construct singular and the former as a construct dual with waw as a mater lectionis to represent -ō < -ā in the nominative dual construct.

In the following pages I propose, first, to give a short account of the locality in which the remarkable inscriptions which accompany this memoir were found, and of the circumstances which led to their discovery, and then to offer a few remarks on the nature of the inscriptions themselves, and of the method I have employed in endeavouring to decipher them.

In the preceding essay, the Sánc'hya, theistical as well as atheistical, was examined. The. subject of the present essay, will be the dialectic philosophy of Gótama, and atomical of Canáde, respectively called Nyáya “ reasoning, ” and Vaiśéshica “particular.” The first, as its- title implies, is chiefly occupied with the metaphysics of logic; the second with physics: that is, with “particulars” or sensible objects: and hence its name. They may be taken generally, as parts of one system: supplying each other's deficiencies: commonly agreeing upon such points as are treated by both: yet on some differing; and therefore giving origin to two schools, the Naiyáyica, and Vaiśéshica.

Van Den Broecke sailed to Surat and Calicut and thence to Bantam, where he landed on 18th November, to find that Reynst had died. Coen considered that the voyage had been successful. On 25th November he informed Hans de Hase on the Coromandel Coast that nearly all the merchandise had been sold at Mocha at very high prices and that the Nassau had brought to Java 23,000 rials in cash: this had been only a trial voyage, but a good cargo would be sent when there was an opportunity. On 10th December Coen reported to Holland that all the goods had been sold satisfactorily at Mocha except for some cloves, nutmegs, mace, and porcelain, which had been taken on to Surat. He described Van den Broecke as having been made very welcome by the “Viceroy of Leamen” at his capital, “Scena,” a “great, beautiful and populous” town, lying ten days’ journey inland from Mocha. He expressed surprise that the Turks should be able to keep their populous Arabian territories peaceful and obedient with such a small number of troops. Before Coen died in 1629 the Imam of San'a was to prove that the Turks were able to do nothing of the kind, even with considerably more troops; even in 1616 their power in the north was not always recognized, but it must be remembered that Van den Broecke had travelled only along one of the principal highways of the country. Of the commerce of the Yemen Coen gave his directors an account resembling that published by Van den Broeckem and discussed it in relation to the Company's interests elsewhere.

The following pages contain a rather circumstantial account of certain negotiations between the Buwaihid, 'Aḍud al-Daula, and the Emperor Basil, the slayer of the Bulgarians, consequent on the presence of Basil's defeated rival, Bardas Scleros, in honourable captivity at Baghdad. His defeat at Pancalia in A.D. 979 very nearly coincided with 'Aḍud al-Daula's final conquest of ‘Irāḳ, which was followed by the expulsion from Mosul of the Hamdanid Abu Taghlib. Between him and Scleros existed the tie of self-interest cemented by one of affinity: they had assisted each other against their respective adversaries, and had both been defeated. Abu Taghlib's defeat was final; driven from Diyār Bakr by the troops of 'Aḍud al-Daula, he fled to Syria and perished by a treacherous Arab hand. But no impassable barrier as yet interposed between Scleros and the object of his ambition. He had escaped to Mayyāfāriḳīn, which had lately submitted to ‘Aḍud al-Daula, and had sent thence his brother Constantine as his envoy to Baghdad with an appeal for succour and an offer of allegiance. Contemporaneously arrived at Baghdad an envoy from Basil with instructions to procure, at whatever cost, the surrender of Scleros, who was obviously a valuable pawn in the monarchs’ political game. 'Aḍud al-Daula thereupon caused him and his followers to be promptly conveyed to Baghdad, and the game proceeded.

There are several recensions of the Hikayat Seri Rama or Malay Ramayana. There are three folk-versions: Seri Rama of Sumatran origin, edited with an outline in English by W. E. Maxwell (JRAS. Straits Branch, 17, 1886); Hikayat Maharaja Ravana, by H. Overbeck (JRAS. Malayan Branch, xi, pt. ii, 1933); and a Patani version, of which an outline was given by me in the Royal Batavian Society's Feestbundel, Batavia, 1929. Of literary recensions the best known are Archbishop Laud's text in the Bodleian, ed. W. G. Shellabear (JRAS. Straits Branch, 71, 1915, with outline, ibid., 70, 1917) = Sh. in this article, and that printed by Roorda van Eysinga (Amsterdam, 1843) = Ro. in this article. The last two have been compared by A. Zeiseniss in his Die Rāma-Sage bei den Malaien (Hamburg, 1928), which has a fairly complete bibliography except for the folk-tale versions. But beyond a few lines in van der Tuuk's catalogue (reprinted in Essays on Indochina, 2nd series, vol. ii) nothing has been written of Raffles Malay MS. 22 in the Library of this Society, which for various reasons is of unique interest. Throughout my description I retain the Malay forms for Sanskrit words.

The importance of the Mishkāt al-Anwār for a full understanding of the thought of al-Ghazālī was long ago recognized by Goldziher. He impressed this on W. H. T. Gairdner, when, in 1911, he was guiding him into the higher reaches of Islamic studies; and in due course Gairdner produced an article on Al-Ghazālī's Mishkāt al-Anwār and the Ghazālī-Problem and a Translation of the opuscule accompanied by a thought-provoking Introduction. On the whole the problems there raised have not received from subsequent writers the attention which Gairdner's discussion of them merits and their own importance warrants.

Precious building materials have always been used over and over again — the spoils of the architectural war. A section of the Colosseum is now the Palazzo Farnese and the Church of the Wisdom of God in the respectable Surrey town of Kingswood harbours capitals from Ephesus, the Studion, and the Myrelaion in Istanbul, besides a quantity of Byzantine marble. Precious marbles were transported far and wide by sea and, although it is not surprising that porphyry from the Red Sea coast of Egypt is used in the Pantheon, it is interesting that Giallo Antico from Algeria or Tunisia and Pavonazzetto from Phrygia which decorated, for example, the Basilica Julia in Rome have been found at provincial Colchester.

To the life and doctrines of the famous founder of the Ḳādirī Order a certain amount of attention has already been devoted in Europe, yet scarcely sufficient to render further investigation of the subject unnecessary.